Nigeria will not record any HIV positive baby by 2016 – Jonathan

President Goodluck  Jonathan made the pledge yesterday in Abuja during the Presidential Launch of the National Operational Plan for the Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV in Nigeria by 2020.Calling for political commitment at all levels of government to increase the momentum in the effort to achieve elimination of mother to child transmission […]

President Goodluck  Jonathan made the pledge yesterday in Abuja during the Presidential Launch of the National Operational Plan for the Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV in Nigeria by 2020.
Calling for political commitment at all levels of government to increase the momentum in the effort to achieve elimination of mother to child transmission (eMTCT), the president emphasised that no child should be born with HIV and no mother deserves to die of AIDS beyond 2016.
The president who was represented by Vice President Namadi Sambo, said that the government was quite aware of the intension of donor agencies to gradually withdraw funds saying the government was willing to provide funds to bridge the gaps left by the redrawal.
He added that already government has released monies to funds the Presidential Response, saying  Nigeria is still faced with several gaps towards improving health outcomes in the country, including funding and access to health facilities.
“There are still challenges with bringing services closer to the communities through the primary health care system, as a result of infrastructural decay, inadequate and mismatch of human resources for health, inadequate funding for service delivery and lack of enabling policies for key interventions, which are partly linked to limited political leadership and ownership at the states and local government levels,” he said.
Making a call to action, the President said, “I will lead a transformative movement to end the AIDS epidemic among children in our country, because it is my clear conviction that no child deserves to be born with HIV in Nigeria. Join me in this fight for AIDS-free generation in our nation.”
Earlier in his remarks, the supervising Minister of Health, Dr Khaliru Alhassan, had said that though there has been a decline in the prevalence of HIV infections in Nigeria, “but we have not reached the Promised Land.”
He said that Nigeria still accounts for a significant proportion of paediatric HIV infections among the 22 countries in sub-Saharan Africa with high burden of HIV and TB.
According to the minister who was represented by his permanent secretary, Linus Awute, the eMTCT operational plan has been developed to address the implementational gaps of the 2010-2015 NSP and the PCRP and to increase the momentum of PMTCT implementation towards the elimination goal.